Founder Uses Imagery Insights to Improve Team Communication

Context

A founder of a 12-person startup. They often gave direction by describing a future state (“see where we are in six months”) and rehearsed tough conversations by picturing the room and the other person’s face.

Challenge

• Instructions that relied on “visualize the outcome” or “picture the launch” worked for some and left others asking for written goals or step-by-step plans. The founder didn’t realize the gap was in how people imagined, not in motivation.
• Difficult conversations were rehearsed in the founder’s head as vivid scenes. In the room, some people responded to tone and pacing (auditory) or to how the conversation “felt” (motor/embodied); the founder’s visual rehearsal didn’t match how everyone processed the message.
• Meeting feedback showed a split: some found direction “crystal clear,” others “abstract until we had a doc.”

Solution

• The founder took the Imagination Index assessment and discovered they were high in visual imagery and moderate in auditory. They invited the leadership team to take it and share (optional) which senses they leaned on.
• They diversified how they communicated: same message, multiple channels. For big outcomes, they added a short written summary and one or two “what it sounds like when we get there” (e.g. what customers say, what the team says) so strong auditory imagers could latch on.
• For hard conversations, they rehearsed not only the scene but the tone and pacing (auditory) and how they wanted to sit and respond (motor). They also left space for the other person to respond in the way that fit them.

Results

• Meeting feedback improved. Fewer “I didn’t get it” follow-ups; people could say “I need the written version” or “hearing it once was enough” without it seeming like a performance issue.
• Difficult conversations felt more aligned. The founder could prepare in the modality that worked for them while still delivering in a way that landed for others.
• The team could name how they preferred to receive direction (visual, verbal, written), which reduced guesswork and one-size-fits-all briefs.

Key learnings

• Defaulting to your own strength (e.g. visual) can leave others behind. Profile-informed communication doesn’t mean changing your style—it means adding channels so everyone can access the message.
• Rehearsal benefits from more than one sense. Combining visual (scene) with auditory (tone) and motor (presence) made the founder’s prep more robust and the delivery more consistent.
• Imagery profiles are a shared vocabulary, not a label. “I’m low visual, high auditory” gave the team a neutral way to ask for what they needed.